Tuesday, October 8, 2013

BSA Should Grant Bergen Tile Building A Variance From Ill-Advised Parking Minimums

Real estate firm marketing retail at Flatbush Avenue and Dean Street, though building configuration still in question

The City's parking minimums are bad policy in general - they raise the cost of building housing and induce traffic. This particular building highlights the absurdity of demanding parking in new developments. The City's rules would force the developer to forego ground floor retail in favor of parking … directly across from the largest transit hub in Brooklyn. That is insane.

Unfortunately, CB6's vote to split the baby and only require parking in the basement does not go far enough. BSA should waive the parking requirements for this building in the entirety. Despite years of assurances, Bloomberg's Dept. of City Planning has run out the clock on reform of mandatory parking minimums. I hope we see real action on this reform in the new administration. End minimum parking requirements - where are the "free market libertarians" when you need them? Always trying out three cornered hats when there's something useful to be done.

"As I wrote last year, PRD Realty, owners of the triangular Bergen Tile building since 1934, want to make sure there's retail on the ground floor, not use it to meet the city's increasingly antiquated parking minimums, spots for 40% of the units, or some 24 spots. While nearly everyone at a Community Board 6 committee meeting agreed that the city's parking requirements don't fit in a zone near transit, some thought that, given the increased competition for spaces in the neighborhood, some spaces should remain in the building's basement, though not on the street level. So the committee, which has only an advisory vote, agreed to support the request for a variance from the Board of Standards and Appeals, subject to several conditions, including 12 parking spaces in the basement."